Gun Plain Township board members decided the township should pay to fix a private road washed out when a public water main broke.
Board members voted 5-0 Thursday, June 7, to spend about $21,468 fixing Blarney Lane near Lake Doster and a small amount to repair a homeowner’s flower bed.
Township Supervisor Mike VanDenBerg said the township’s insurer had suggested that the board could let the homeowners sue them and use a sovereign immunity defense.
“I said that’s not good government,” VanDenBerg said.
The soil in the area had degraded the bolts that held a shutoff valve onto the main, which was the cause of the break. The new pipe would be specially wrapped to deal with the corrosion, a common problem in Portage.
VanDenBerg said the money would come from the township’s sewer fund.
“The system out there, we are coming up on where we are going to have to bond to go about replacing a lot of things,” he said.
Contact Dan Pepper at dpepper@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534.
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